The field of refractory hard metals (RHM) has had many advances during the past few years. The RHM's have many properties in common with both ceramics and metals and are consequently of great interest in areas where the properties of hard materials with the temperature resistance and rigidity associated with ceramics, combined with some metal-associated properties such as electrical conductivity, are particularly desired.
The RHM's have other properties which have limited their usage up to the present time. They are usually brittle, have little resistance to thermal shock, and are quite expensive to produce and fabricate into useful articles.
RHM articles have been produced by a number of processes including hot pressing of the granular or powdered materials, chemical vapor deposition, and in situ reduction of metals by carbon or other reducing agents. Hot pressing is the most commonly used process for production of shapes. A die and cavity mold set is filled with powder, heated to about 300.degree.-800.degree. C. and placed under pressure of about 2.times.10.sup.8 Pa, then removed from the mold and heated at about 1500.degree.-2000.degree. C. or higher, or sintered in the mold.
Hot pressing has the limitations of applicability to simple shapes only, erosion of the mold, and slow production. The pieces produced by hot pressing are subject to a high percentage of breakage in handling, making this process expensive in terms of yield of useful products.
The RHM's of most interest include the carbides, borides, and nitrides of the metals of IVA, IVB, VB, and VIB of the periodic table, particularly Ti, V, Si and W.
Past developments in the art include U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,581, Juel et al, disclosing a TiB.sub.2 -C composite; U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,382, Joo et al, disclosing TiB.sub.2 articles produced by an in situ reaction; U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,463, Joo et al, disclosing inert gas processing of TiB.sub.2 articles; U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,029 Joo et al, disclosing TiB.sub.2 -graphite composites, all commonly assigned. Schwarzkopf and Kieffer, Refractory Hard Metals, MacMillan & Co., New York, 1953, disclose much of the technology involved in RHM's. U.S. Pat. No. 3,400,061, Lewis, discloses a RHM Hall cell cathode. U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,442, Lewis, discloses a RHM Hall cell cathode consisting of the borides, carbides and nitrides of Ti, Zr, V, Ta, Nb and Hf.
Impregnation of porous articles with metals is known in the art as disclosed in Japanese Application J78009254 by Toyota disclosing impregnation of Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 or C by molten Ag or Al. U.S. Pat. No. 1,548,975 discloses graphite impregnated with Pb, U.S. Pat. No. 2,934,460 discloses C impregnated with Ag, U.S. Pat. No. 2,950,979 discloses C impregnated with Ag or Cu, as does U.S. Pat. No. 3,294,572, U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,054 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,549,408. U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,989 discloses impregnation of C by Mg, Na and K. U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,668 discloses impregnation of C by Ru. Canadian 669,472 discloses impregnation of C by Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, Mn and alloys with Ni, Fe, Co and Cu. W. Germany 1,085,086 discloses impregnation of C by Be. Japan J77008329 discloses impregnation of C by Cd. Japan J54131-591 discloses impregnation of C by pitch, Pb, Sn, Al, Cu or resins. U. Kingdom 1,234,634 discloses C impregnated with Al, Sn, Pb, Zn, Sb and Sb-Sn alloys, U. Kingdom 1,244,078 discloses graphite impregnated with a Bi-Ni alloy. U. Kingdom 1,363,943 discloses C impregnated with a series of alloys of Al, Cu, Mg, Mn, Si, Sn, Zn, Be, P, Ni, Cd, Sb and Ag.
There are many other well-known uses of RHM's, e.g. the use of carbides in cutting tools for metalworking and oil well drilling tools. In particular there has been interest in uses for ordnance and armament, both of which depend heavily on their hardness, with the limitations inherent in the brittle nature associated with ceramics.